This is just one of many examples of why Richmond won't finance NOVA with our fair share of our tax money. Nobody else in the state has to sit in this type of traffic...There is a certain responsibility that ever state has to make sure that interstate traffic can move through their state and the GOP in Richmond has over and over said that they will not take of that responsibility.

Part of the HOT contract is that VDOT can open up the HOT lanes in the case of emergency, but the state will have to reimburse the HOT lane operator for the normal revenue they would receive. Still doesn't mean it's a good idea to sell off roads.

Let's take PW, Fairfax, Alexandria/Arlington and Loudoun and create our own state. I'd like to see what would happen to the rest of the state with 90% of their funding going back to the people that pay it.

"This is just one of many examples of why Richmond won't finance NOVA with our fair share of our tax money... There is a certain responsibility that ever state has to make sure that interstate traffic can move through their state and the GOP in Richmond has over and over said that they will not take of that responsibility."

Woodbridgeboy,

Don't believe the hype and malarky that roads didn't get built in Northern Virgina because of Richmond's "stinginess" and "irresponsibility". That's far removed from the truth.

What's preventing highway construction is OPPOSITION from NIMBY's, environmentalists, and those fixated on rail.

Your transportation planning, then as now, was hijacked by people who might have wanted the upscale hoyusing and Fortune 500 companies, but not the through express or bypass route. Add to that the enviro-tyrants who've NEVER met a planned road they weren't against and those who want everyone (but themselves, of course) to live in condos near transit stations and you have a small group with undue influence and control over what gets built.

Your so-called "leaders" and "officials" have let these groups run amock. And the general public has failed to stand against these (reletavely small) special interest groups who care nothing about the greater good.

I met a retired VDOT manager few years ago at a transportation planning hearing. He told me that the consistent noise from the SAME groups of opponents to EVERY proposed highway project and the FAILURE of officials AND the general public to counter it (when the money was good, no less) eventually convinced VDOT that Northern Virginia DID NOT want roads.

Then, when NOVA had a chance to raise their own transportation funding in 2002, the voters let enviro-liars and anti-tax zealots con them into voting it down.

So it's not totally Richmond's fault. Not by a long shot.

NOVA, you did it to yourselves. Hope you enjoy the HOT lanes and Dulles rail, because that's all you're going to get until you "grow a pair", raise your own money, and stop letting road opponents control the planning.